If somebody
asks, “What does your husband do?”
My standard
response is,
“He’s an Optometrist.”
But really,
a more accurate job title is:
SMALL BUSINESS OWNER (SBO)
When Ryan
graduated from Optometry school, I thought I was married to an eye doctor. However, when he leased a space in a small
retail center, hired an employee, and hung up a sign outside that read, “FAMILY
FOCUSED EYECARE,” we found ourselves suddenly immersed in a completely new kind
of professional craziness:
16 hour
days.
Six-day work
weeks.
Firing
employees.
Angry
customers.
Paying everybody
but yourself.
Nobody
understands the challenges of opening and managing an Optometry business better
than our dinner guest this Sunday: Dr.
V.
She’s an SBO
too.
Dr. V. and her
boyfriend Rove are of Filipino heritage, so I thought I would cook Filipino
food. How hard could it be? I’m an experienced
cook. I can follow a recipe. I
searched my usual websites: Allrecipes.com, Foodtv.com, and Cooks.com, but nothing seemed very
authentic. I then googled a Filipino website
and spent an hour reading through recipes.
I tried to be open minded, but dishes named Sinigang na Baboy, Crispy Pata, Kare-Kare, and Rellenong Bangus just didn’t sound good. Plus, their ingredients were totally
foreign. I didn’t want a giant bottle of
“calamansi juice” in my fridge for the next year when I only needed two
tablespoons for an obscure recipe I would probably never make again.
I quickly
tossed out my Filipino cuisine aspirations and went with something much more
American: Mexican food. Every Wal-Mart in Las Vegas is stocked with peppers,
cilantro, tortillas of all sizes, and any other ingredient used in Mexican
food. I made Pepper Jack Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo sauce, Mexican rice, corn pudding, and fresh
berries. As an appetizer, I served
tortilla chips with three kinds of dip from Trader Joes. Dr. V. brought two pies from Marie
Calendars: banana cream and fresh
strawberry. Once the kids caught a
glimpse of the boxed pies decorated with fancy whipped cream, they had difficulty
concentrating on much else.
We played
our traditional question game during dinner and learned that Dr. V. was born in
Chicago, her favorite ice cream is chocolate, and favorite Disney princess is
Jasmine. Rove was born in California, his
favorite candy is Snickers, and favorite super hero is The Hulk.
At pie time,
Jack threw a nuclear tantrum of such magnitude that Ryan carried him to
his room to calm down. Twenty minutes
later, I went upstairs to release Jack from bedroom jail and found him asleep. Out Cold.
I carried sleeping Jack to the toilet for potty business, brushed
sleeping Jack’s teeth, peeled off his socks and shorts, and tucked him in bed.
After dinner,
the adults sat around the table talking while Kate (7) and Rock (3) ran off to
play. Around 7:00 pm, Kate handed me an
invitation to an American-themed show she was performing at 7:20 pm. Twenty minutes later, as promised, we sat in
chairs in our living room as Kate and Rock delivered short speeches, danced, and
encouraged us to sing along. I could
only imagine what Dr. V. and Rove were thinking as we all stood with hands on
hearts singing, “Oh Say Can You See….”
while Rock pointed to an imaginary American flag on the wall. I got a little uncomfortable when we had to sing
TWO verses of “Take Me Out to the Ball
Game.” Overall, it was a cute show
and I got enough video footage of Kate and Rock to sufficiently embarrass them when
they are teenagers.
Ryan has
often remarked that Dr. V. is like a sister to him. He can call her and get advice on diseases of
the eye, commiserate over Optometry business stresses, and joke around with
someone who understands his quirky sense of humor. Which means, lucky for us, we will be friends
with Dr. V. for a long time.
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